So the women of my house have decided that we should have a 4th car this summer.

The two options are

A: I find a ~$5k ish decent runner that one of the girls uses over the summer and I sell it in the fall.

or

B: I take on a lease for a 2015 335GT (nicely optioned, M-Sport, performance power pack, tech, etc.) from May/June through Feb 2019. Lease payment (after cash from transferrer) would be about $450/month. The lease is way low on miles, so we could drive it over 2k /miles per month and not worry about going over.

If we do B, my wife would drive the 335 as her daily, which I think she'd like much better than the X5 and whichever girl was driving less that day would take the X5 while the other used the e46. Insurance on option be would be about $90/month more than Option A.

Option A has the possibility of being much cheaper, but is not without risks.

I personally prefer option B for a number of reasons.
1. it is pretty much fixed cost, assuming no major issues at lease turn in. *This is my biggest concern with the lease option. I've never leased before and don't know what to expect at turn in from a dealer nickel/dime perspective.

2. It benefits my wife more than the teenage girls, and she is more deserving of benefits.

3. There is not the hassle of finding a car, negotiating, buying then turning around and selling to the craigslist crowd shortly there after.

4. No major maintenance risks, the lease car is fully warranted and *should* just run without worry. I am concerned that I'll be responsible with keeping the beater reliably running for the next 4 months and anything that goes wrong will be my fault.

Anyway, anybody have any thoughts on one direction vs the other? (And thanks JST for the PM reply it was insightful on BMW lease turn ins).

My E91 Lease went pretty well. Admittedly my car was babied and it looked immaculate with 18k miles when I returned it.

That said, I'd consider the following:

1) I'd have to be put at ease with respect to assuming liabilities/responsibilities from the original lessee.
2) There is a ~$350 disposition fee at turn-in. Make sure you factor that in.
3) Note body damage and tire wear. That could get costly.

A secondary concern of mine is if we own a fourth car, the pressure will be great to allow one (or both) of the girls to take said car back to college with them . I am 100% against the idea of either of them having a car that I own, insure and am liable for on a college campus with people doing college things. I am not sure I'd successfully win that position, especially if the extra car was already 'just sitting there'.

Even if the battle was won, the potential relationship damage would be high.

Long story short, yes Matt's e91 would be perfect for me to live in when I'm divorced.